Tuesday, November 8, 2016

It's OK to Agree to Disagree

I love disagreements. I really do. One of the leadership principles I buy into the most comes from Bill Parcells and his assumption that all winning teams and organizations need to have a "comfortable level of discomfort." I've found that to be very true throughout my career. When handled correctly, disagreements and discomfort can be wonderful tools for us all.

"When handled correctly" is the key point, however, from the paragraph above.

It seems we live in a time where disagreements define us instead of making us broaden our thinking and understanding. Today is election day and I feel like this is the most divisive national election we've ever had.

I love my wife more than anything. She and I don't always agree. In fact, we disagree on many things. I love my parents and family members with all my heart and we don't agree on everything. Why do we have this notion that we all must agree on things? It's crazy.

If I like Candidate A, that doesn't mean I can't be supportive of Candidate B if they win. It doesn't mean I "hate" Candidate B. It doesn't mean I should defame those that support Candidate B. If I vote "yes," I should still be able to understand why some folks voted "no."

You see, it's OK to disagree with others as long as you handle it with maturity and understanding. We can't go around with this mentality that we must hate, attack, and tear down those that disagree with us. That's insane. I love to talk to people that disagree with me about something. It is often fascinating to see the angles of thought they take. They don't normally change my mind but they give me something to think about. It is healthy to understand how others analyze situations differently than we do.

Social media has made this phenomenon of "hating those we disagree with" really escalate. It is so easy to sit on Twitter or Facebook and bash people that don't think just like you think. It's easy to be sarcastic, immature, and cruel when you have no face-to-face accountability. There are way too many "Internet Tough Guys" that must be so egocentric that they can't fathom someone might actually have a different thought about something than they do. How sad it would be to go through life like that.

Regardless of how local, state, and national elections turn out this week, I hope we can get back to a more civilized life of understanding others and agreeing to disagree from time to time.

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